Second Album by Roy Buchanan (Vinyl record album review)

Album name: Second Album

Artist name: Roy Buchanan

Year: 1973

Number of discs: one

Label: Polydor

Collection: Brenner / Gessner

Who owned it: my father

Buy it on Amazon: $79.99

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I’ve never heard this record before, but I listened to Roy Buchanan (1972) last fall and loved it.

What I expected

More electric blues and psychedelic rock with very good guitar.

What it was actually like

Like the previous Roy Buchanan record, this one was an outstanding display of electric blues guitar mastery, with some piano backing and vocals, and I was consistently amazed that he could pull so many different kinds of sounds out of his guitar.

The guitar repeatedly sang like a real person singing, and on multiple songs, such as Filthy Teddy, it sounded like a saxophone or a trumpet.

Five String Blues was much slower than I preferred, and its vocal part was totally unnecessary, but I was still awed at what he could do, and even its piano solo was wild.

Like John’s Blues on the previous record, Treat Her Right on this one was much more of a rock song, and I thought it was great, though not exactly the most consistent with the rest of the record. My favorite, though, was Tribute To Elmore James, which may have been exactly why the electric blues was invented in the first place.

She Once Lived Here was more of a country song, and slower, but still great.

The only song that I did not really enjoy was Thank You Lord, which was kind of a waste of a track, with very little to it and no searing, singing guitar like the others had.

Grade

5/5: love it